Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core

Director: Donna Jeffe, PhD

The Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core (HBCOC), directed by Donna B. Jeffe, PhD, is one of 14 Siteman Cancer Center shared resources. The Core provides services to investigators engaged in Prevention and Control and Clinical/Translational research. Core faculty and staff have developed high quality services in behavioral science, epidemiology, health education and communication, program evaluation, psychological quality-of-life assessments, and geocoding and spatial statistics.

The HBCOC is a shared resource with components both at Washington University School of Medicine and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. The Core's specific services include:

Health Education: Design, implement and evaluate school- and community-based programs and curricula. This includes qualitative research planning, development of assessment tools for measuring health-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, training in implementation of health education methods, and development of medical school curricula.

Health Communication: Through our collaboration with the Health Communication Research Laboratory (HCRL) at the Brown School of Social Work, we can help in the development of print, computer and video-based health communication materials and programs. This includes tailored health education interventions based on survey or other data gathered from potential recipients, assessment of materials for readability and cultural appropriateness, graphic design of health communication materials, and website design and development.

Psychological Aspects of Cancer & Quality of Life: We have extensive experience in research and measurement of the psychological aspects of illness and quality of life. This includes identifying appropriate measures for quality of life and psychological characteristics, development and validation of psychosocial, behavioral and quality of life instruments, and development and evaluation of interventions addressing psychological status and quality of life in cancer patients and their families.

Outreach: With PECaD (Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities), we help studies to reach minority and underserved populations, addressing their healthcare needs, and evaluating approaches to reducing inequalities in cancer prevention and care. This includes planning community-based participatory research aimed at reducing cancer disparities in prevention, treatment, and health outcomes.

PUBLICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: If research supported by the Health Behavior and Outreach Core results in publication, please acknowledge this support by including the following in your publication(s):

We thank the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., for the use of the Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core, which provided __________ service. The Siteman Cancer Center is supported in part by NCI Cancer Center Support Grant #P30 CA091842.